I tried using a reference to draw half a Rainbow Dash. The eyes were a bit difficult to get relatively proportionate but I may get the style with practice. The wing on the right was my fi

rst attempt, and redone 3 times. It's placement is wrong, but it would have taken too much erasing to fix. The left was 2 attempts, but I think I'm starting to understand them.

The wings are important. They go beyond a simple characteristic. I think I could become decent at this, I just need to practice constantly. Maybe use a better starting reference so I can understand the basics of the style.

I later outlined it with Sharpie, though I wish I hadn't. I went with my meager budget and purchased a blue pastel, some charcoal, and two sketch pencils of differing softness. I started with the charcoal on the outside, then experimented with the Pastel on the main body while seeing what Char

coal would look like for the wing. I didn't like the single shade that the pastel gave the body, but continued to fill it anyway. I then shaded the darker areas with the softer pencil to try and get the darker look. I then took the Charcoal to the background again, and did some random lines.

Then I noticed a method to my madness, then I started doing Arching lines that reminded me of clouds. I think if I changed the angle a bit, it would look more reminiscent of sky.

I didn't like the way the pastel left lines, so I went over with a kneaded rubber eraser and actually managed to smudge the lines together to make a more solid color. Then I went over the body with a pencil to give it a darker shade.

The left wing I did in charcoal at first, then added pastel, then smudged with the eraser. I did the same to the right wing to be consistent. Now I wish I didn't go over the Iris with marker, I would have added something else to that. Now she looks angry and I can't fix that.

This is my FIRST attempt using charcoal of any kind. I was being rather experimental here and I'm almost proud of the way it turned out.

pretty good considering this was your first attempt at a lot of the aspects of the drawing. Id have to suggest starting with a more simple reference picture to get the anatomy of ponies down before trying the head-on view: I can tell you from experience it is far more difficult than a side view due to the requirement of lining up the eyes and wings to be proportional.

That's what I figured. Seems twilight is easier than what I've been attempting right now. I've been trying to do a Vinyl Scratch side profile. I was doing a ton of sketches in a row to try and get better, ended up doing one on lined paper, which is annoying when you're working with light pencil strokes.

Then went back and colored her. Taking note of what the graphite was doing to indentations of the page. I have an idea to do an after-image someday, but that's when I'm better.

This is what I did last night. I'm rather angry at myself for getting the head wrong, and the horn. I shouldn't have done that. I did this one in just pencil, no sharpie outline using the few materials I scrounged up, and working with the background a little bit.

I think the one on lined paper looks better for me. I think because this one looks like she's overweight ^

I won't post every sketch I do, but I believe this was relevant. Thank you for the suggestion, I'll try that next.